Scope and arrangement
The May Sarton letters to Huldah Sharp, dating from the 1950s to 2002, chronicle Sarton and Sharp's romantic relationship, their respective domestic and personal lives, their travels, and Sarton's professional life. The collection of approximately 150 mostly typewritten letters also holds correspondence written by Sharp's relatives and friends about Sarton, three typescripts written by Sarton as well as some photographs, flyers, clippings, postcards, and a published book.
The bulk of the letters in the collection date from 1975 to 1994 and consist of Sarton's letters to Sharp. These letters often include typewritten or printed poems along with some photographs, clippings, flyers, and postcards. The letters offer insight into Sarton's feelings about aging and health, love, gardening and plants, muses and writing poetry, responding to letters, her fame, pets, solitude, friends, and the fluctuations in her relationship with Sharp.
Sarton wrote Sharp almost three times a week from February 1977 to April 1980. Sarton's letters from this period mention her honorary degrees and commencement speeches; poem drafts (some of which appear in Halfway to Silence); comparison of her and Sharp's upbringings; pets (Tamas the shetland sheepdog and Bramble the cat); the ups and downs of her relationship with Sharp; daily life in York, Maine; their zodiac signs; and her social life, including dinner with Madeleine L'Engle. Her missives also discuss the publication of The House by the Sea; seeing Eva La Gallienne perform; Susan Sherman's work on May Sarton: Selected Letters 1955-1995 (2002) and Sarton's archive; Knopf getting Sarton's biography rights; her biographer Margot Peters; and writing poems for Coming Into Eighty. Of note are Sarton's letters detailing her 1977 trip to Brussels, Belgium; London, England (where she visited Juliette Huxley); Suffolk, England; and the Channel Islands.
While most of the letters are written from Sarton to Sharp, there are approximately five letters written by Sarton to Ann Sharp Street (Sharp's niece-in-law), two letters from Sharp to Sarton, a letter from Jesse Phillip to Sharp, and a letter from Sharp to Street. All the letters not written by Sarton are mostly about the letter writer's relationship with Sarton.
The collection also holds three typescripts: a three act play titled The Music-Box Bird, a collection of thirty-five poems signed and dated by Sarton titled The First Year, and a collection of forty-five poems titled Halfway to Silence that includes some annotations in Sarton's hand.
Additional materials include candid photographs of Sarton and Sharp taken in the late 1980s, a clipping about Sarton's writing career, a flyer announcing the posthumous publication of three Sarton works, and a highlighted copy of Sherman's May Sarton: Selected Letters 1955-1995.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged topically into correspondence, typescripts, and additional material. Correspondence is arranged by writer, then chronologically.